Ceiling of the altar of the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Malolos City. Photo by Lorenzo Atienza, 12 June 2019.
How great and deeply spiritual is your servant St. Paul, Lord Jesus Christ! No problem is too ordinary for him as he resolves them in the light of the gospel. He shows us in so many instances like in our first reading today how the gospel sheds light on seemingly secular matters like sharing treasures.
Now as you excel in every respect, in faith, discourse, knowledge, all earnestness, and in the love we have for you, may you excel in this gracious act also. I say this not by way of command, but to test the genuineness of your love by your concern for others. For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sake he became poor although he was rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich.
2 Corinthians 8:7-9
Here in St. Paul is the answer to our perennial question to your gospel teaching of how can we “love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us”? (Mt.5:44)
First, dispose us always to prayer, to communing in you and with you. Detach us from this world once in a while in silence and hiddeness. Just be with you. Alone. Listening to you, feeling you.
Then, open our hearts and minds to your words. Enflesh your words in us, through us and with us.
Once we have been emtpied of ourselves and filled with your words and spirit, move us, guide us, O Lord, to your will and direction like St. Paul. Make us your instrument in doing charity for others.
Cleanse our hearts and our lips that we may worthily proclaim your gospel in words and in deeds. Amen.
Rev. Bp. Jesse Mercado of Paranaque blessing the people with the Gospel book during a Mass. Photo by Lorenzo Atienza.
It is Father’s Day and I cannot help being nostalgic because I lost my father 19 years ago at around this time of the year. It was June 17, 2000, the eve of Father’s day when my dad died of a heart attack before dawn. It was also the birthday of my mother.
And that is why I have always loved Luther Vandross Jr.’s “Dancing With My Father” he had co-written with Richard Marx released May 30, 2003.
It is the perfect song on this Father’s Day as it speaks of the tenderness and love of a father to his wife and children. No wonder, when Jesus taught us how to pray, he told us to call God “Dad” or “Daddy” which is the more literal translation of “Abba”.
What I like most in “Dancing With My Father” is at the end of the song:
Sometimes I’d listen outside her door And I’d hear how mama would cry for him I’d pray for her even more than me I’d pray for her even more than meI know I’m praying for much to much But could you send her The only man she loved I know you don’t do it usually But Dear Lord She’s dying to dance with my father againEvery night I fall asleep And this is all I ever dream
My father loved my mother so much. Since childhood until I became a priest, he never ate without my mother with him at the table. He does her coffee and he is our chef. It was doubly hard losing him because he died on her birthday. Every time I would visit my dad’s grave, I asked him only one question: why did you die on mom’s birthday? After two years, I felt his answer that he died on my mom’s birthday so I would also love her as he had loved her. And that is what I have always tried to fulfill.
My father never asked me to become a priest but it was him who unconsciously planted the seeds of my vocation when I would always see him praying before our altar before leaving for work and upon arriving home in the evening. It was from him I have learned and realized what true love is and most of all, that indeed, God is love. He loved us so much and even though it has been 19 years since he died, I can still feel his love.
For all the faithful and loving dads especially those with God our Father in heaven, here’s one for you….
Our second song is another tribute to a late father, Bread’s 1970 hit “Make It with You”.
According to its composer David Gates, he got the inspiration for “Make It With You” not from his girlfriend but from his late father. Gates claimed that during an interview, a reporter asked him with whom would he want to share his success in music with? Right away, he answered it would be his late father, of how he would want to “make it with him” so his dad would see his successful career in music.
Perhaps, that’s what we all miss with our late dads who worked so hard to give us good future, a good career: we all want them to see the fruits of their labors in us, to share with them whatever good things we now have is because of them. It is from these experiences with our loving dads that we have had glimpses of our personal God who became human like us in Jesus Christ, joining us in our pains and sufferings to be one with him in his triumphs and glory.
As we celebrate today the Solemnity of the Blessed Trinity, may we get into the very selves of our dad in Spirit to realize how immense that love God has for everyone meant to be shared with others too. Cheers to all dads!
Thank you very much Lord Jesus Christ for this Friday, for another weekend.
As the days moved on since Monday, we didn’t know how this week would move on for many of us: the pressures and stress at home, in the office and the school with all kinds of problems.
Some of us almost gave up life, Lord, because of sickness and loneliness, pains and sufferings, neglect and feelings of being misunderstood and unloved or unwelcomed.
But you were always there, Jesus, loving us, comforting us, assuring us of your presence and grace.
We hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned, struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the Body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body.
2 Corinthians 4:7-10
Let us continue your work Jesus. There are still plenty of things to be done this day: so many loving and acts of kindness, a lot of caring and understanding, some forgiving and asking sorry over there, with a lot of smiles and hugs to share so that those in despair may realize life is so beautiful, that it is good to be alive, that there is beauty even in our dirt and brokenness.
Every Cross is a plus sign, O Lord: afflictions and darkness, suffering and pains in life are an addition, never a minus or a subtraction! Amen.
Dominican Hills, Baguio, January 2019. Photo by author.
The Chapel of the Ascension believed to be the site where Jesus stood before ascending into heaven while his disciples looked at. Photo by author, 04 May 2019.
Outside the old city of Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives is the Chapel of the Ascension believed to be the site of Jesus Christ’s Ascension into heaven. Though the octagon-shaped structure is massive and very high, it is quite small inside with just one door for entrance and exit. Immediately upon entering that door on the floor is a framed slab of stone called the “Ascension Rock” venerated by pilgrims because that is where Jesus stood before going up to heaven.
The Ascension Rock. Photo by author, April 2017.
But personally, in the two occasions I have been there in 2017 and last month, my focus have always been more on the four windows of the chapel’s dome.
The rays of light coming through them have always evoked in me the beauty of Christ’s Ascension with a feeling that is so uplifting. The morning rays of the sun gently filling the room with light warms your heart as if angels are keeping you company like what we heard from the first reading during the Ascension of Jesus.
A window at the dome of the Chapel of the Ascension. Photo by author, April 2017.
As I prayed this week on the meaning of the Solemnity of the Ascension by recalling my two pilgrimages to the Holy Land in the light of our readings today, it is only now have I realized that the key to this feast is not found in looking up to the skies or looking down on where Jesus stood before going up to heaven.
It is in looking more into our hearts, looking deep inside us can we truly find the meaning of the Ascension of the Lord.
This feast is an invitation to get inside our hearts, not just into our minds and imagination to appreciate the words of Jesus Christ these past two Sundays about his “going and coming in a little while” (Jn.13:31, 33;14:25;16:16,20).
Remember how Jesus these past two weeks kept on speaking about his leaving and his coming at the same time? Of how we reflected last Sunday that in life, we do not really leave but simply come into new level of existence and new level of relating with God and with others?
Then he led them out as far as Bethany, raised his hands, and blessed them. As he blessed them he parted from them and was taken up to heaven. They did him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple praising God.
Luke 24:50-53
Normally, it is sadness that we feel most in every leaving and departures: when kids leave home to pursue college somewhere, when a father or a mother leaves abroad to work over a long period of time, or a beloved dies. Though the cliche may be right sometimes that “parting is such a sweet, sweet sorrow”, the fact remains there is always sadness whenever we leave or somebody leaves us.
That is why St. Luke’s account of the Ascension is strange when he tells us that Christ’s disciples “then returned to Jerusalem with great joy” after the Ascension. St. Luke does not give any hint or a tinge of sadness among the disciples when Jesus left them to sit at the right hand of God almighty Father in heaven. And, the Holy Spirit has not come down yet. Where did the disciples get this great joy after Jesus had left?
Detail of a 15th century Greek Orthodox icon of the Ascension of Christ with Mary so calm while the apostles very animated, eager to proclaim the gospel. From Google.
We do not have the details at how this great shift happened that the disciples were filled with great joy after Ascension but, the Scriptures and the stories of the saints as well as those of some true heroes provide us with some answers and reasons.
According to St. Luke as well as the other evangelists, Jesus came to see his disciples for many days (40 according to Luke) after Easter. The Lord taught them with some more lessons preparing them for his coming Ascension. Most of all, Jesus made his disciples experienced his new mode of presence in his glorious body. He showed them his wounds and dined with them so often to convince them that he had really risen.
In all instances of his appearances, there was always joy among the disciples. Slowly, the disciples’ joy in knowing Jesus is risen deepened into great joy at the Ascension when this truth sank deeper into their hearts too that they have finally and truly accepted Jesus is alive!
When a truth or a reality stays only in our minds, that is always open to doubts. But, the moment that truth or reality we know is brought down to our hearts, that is only when we truly accept it as really true. And that is when we are filled with great joy because we are already convinced without any doubts of the truth or reality we have received.
Saints and heroes alike find great joy in their sufferings and death because of their convictions in their hearts that what they knew in their minds are very true. They lead “authentic” lives because what they knew in their minds was what they felt in their hearts that they eventually say and do. It is only in authentic living can we find great joy in living, no matter how painful or difficult it may be.
15th century Greek Orthodox icon of the Ascension. From Google.
And that is the great joy in the Ascension of Jesus Christ: the disciples, like us, start living authentically because we are deeply convinced that the Lord had not left us but had in fact launched a new level of nearness with us. His Ascension is the finality of the redemption he had won for us coming right into our hearts when we realize that Jesus did not simply die and rose again for a nameless mass of people. He did everything personally for each one of us.
This is what social media can never give us. Despite its great popularity, social media have left many of us still sad and even sick with various forms of mental illnesses. Everything that happens in the Net often remains up in our heads, rarely sinking into our hearts that still keep us apart despite our connections.
In his message for the 53rd World Communications Sunday we also celebrate today, Pope Francis invites us to connect deeper into the human community and not just in social network communities. The Holy Father stresses that interconnection must go down into personal encounters in the flesh, not just in virtual reality, calling for a shift from “likes” to “amen”.
Poster by Kendrick Ivan Panganiban.
How ironic that all these modern means of communications were invented to bring us all closer together but it seems the opposite is happening. We are growing apart and have become more impersonal than ever! We are all guilty of so often clicking the “like” button without having read the complete post or seen the photos of our relatives and friends. We rarely take time to “process” what we read and see on Facebook by people we call “friends” who often number to thousands. What an inauthentic way of living!
The Ascension of the Lord is a call to authentic living as it launched a new level of nearness of God with us and us with him and with one another. Unlike in the Old Testament as the author of the Letter to the Hebrews explained, Jesus did not enter a sanctuary made of human hands, referring to the old Temple worship that was never complete due to human imperfections. When Jesus came and went through his pasch, he brought God closest to us. We can rise up or ascend to his new level of relationship, new level of existence by rising up also from our infirmities and limitations in him who dwells in our hearts. A joyful month of June to you! Amen.
Stations of the Cross at the wall of the Catholic chapel inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Photo by author, 04 May 2019.
Praise and glory to you, O Lord Jesus Christ! Thank you for another week about to close with another one soon to start. Most of all, thank you, Jesus, for always standing by our side especially in our moments of crisis and darkness.
So many times we find ourselves like your Apostle Thomas the Twin in today’s gospel who ask you with so many questions that are often simple and even silly. But, you always answer them filled with profound truth.
Thomas said to him, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:5-6
O Lord, forgive us for being so slow sometimes like Thomas with our level of understanding your words and teachings, even your very self.
However, we pray also for the sincerity of Thomas in asking that question that now defines you as “the way, the truth, and the life.” In answering that question, you have assured us of never abandoning us, of always fulfilling your words and your plans for us that so often we could not see nor understand at the start.
Help us to be faithful to your words as Paul preached in the synagogue of Antioch in our first reading today. May we always trust your words, Jesus, by following your path of the Cross for you always fulfill them and crowned it with your glorious Resurrection. Amen.
Ninth Station of the Cross before entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Photo by author April 2017.
The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Easter Wk. III, Wednesday, 08 May 2019
Praise and thanksgiving to you, O Lord Jesus Christ as we enter the final stretch of our Holy Land pilgrimage today.
It is very different experience to be in the wilderness of the Sinai desert – so cold, so barren, most of all, so isolated.
Lord, we are tired and longing for home. Now we can imagine the extreme difficulties and hardships of your people in the desert.
But you are so loving and merciful, so generous that you gave them bread from heaven, manna.
Now we have you Jesus as our bread, our life.
Like your first followers who were scattered following Saul’s persecution of the Church, they still went preaching the word – YOU.
We pray for more strength and courage to remain faithful to you, Lord, when we go through our desert in life. Let us share you as our bread to nourish the weak, gladden those who are sad and tired so that we may all persevere to meet you like Moses in the burning bush. Amen.
First photo is the Mt. Sinai mountain range at sunrise while the one above is the enclosed site of the burning bush Moses saw now under the care of Greek Orthodox monks at the St. Catherine Monastery.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 07 May 2019
We are now traveling to the Mt. Sinai area to cross into Egypt. As I have been telling you, this is my third time in the Holy Land and Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial of Israel. I shall write later of my reflections but below is my email written the first time I came here:
23 June 2005
Shalom everyone!
Until now, I could still feel the impact Yad Vashem had on me.
I would just like to add here a story shared with us by Ronnie before our tour….
Accdg to Ronnie, he acted as a guide to a group of young Americans at the Yad Vashem last summer. They met a Jewish woman who survived the holocaust after their tour and told them firsthand her own experience from the Auschwitz camp.
The young tourists were so touched with her story, of how she had lost her parents, siblings and friends. As she wiped her tears, a young man asked the survivor: have you forgiven the people who killed your family?
And Ronnie said, the woman replied this way:I could only forgive if you would always remember.
We were also so touched with the story and the woman’s declaration: I could only forgive if you would always remember.
One of my favorite philosopher is Martin Heidegger, a German existentialist who, unfortunately, was blinded by Hitler’s rhetorics in the beginning but later denounced Nazism.
According to Heidegger, we are all “beings of forgetfullness”; he explained that this is the main reason why we always lead “inauthentic living.”
And that is true. We always have to remember the past not to take tally of how we were hurt or maltreated by others; we remember the painful past so that we would not repeat it and do them again onto others.
It is so sad that in our lives, we keep on remembering how we got inflicted with wounds so that we could wound others; hence, what we have is a vicious circle of violence and retributions.
That I think is the essence of “learning from history”—-of not repeating the same mistakes over and over again.
This is often at the root of many of our problems in our dealings with other people: parents, priests, teachers, supervisors or almost anyone who always remember the difficulties they have gone through when they were younger; we are sometimes guilty of harking at our painful past and get even with those presently under us. And the pains and the hurts increase, forgetting the lessons that could have been learned.
Our country is in deep, deep, deep crises because we are mostly “beings of forgetfullness”—we have a poor sense of history, we can’t remember the lessons of the past because we did not learn at all or just maybe, preoccupied with getting even or vengeance.
Forgiving does not mean forgetting because that is impossible; God programmed us to always remember so that we could become more loving, more forgiving, more understanding, and more like Him in seeing what’s good in everyone.
At the back of Yad Vashem is a breathtaking view of Jerusalem below. After seeing and somehow experiencing the horrors of the Holocaust, I can’t help thinking how come God could accept and allow the Jews, Moslems, and Christians live together in His old city when we can’t even stand the sight or the smell of the person next to us because he is not of same color or creed with us?
God bless!
With my parishioners the other day at Yad Vashem. Many cried at the sights in the museum but we were all touched with the personal story and reflections of our guide, a 70 year old man we fondly call Lolo Mendy. Will write his stories later.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 02 May 2011
As I was telling you since the eve of our departure Sunday… this is my third pilgrimage to the Holy Land, my first as a chaplain guiding 23 other pilgrims.
The word pilgrim entered the English language during the Holy Wars of 1100’s courtesy of the French Crusaders. But its root can be traced to the Latin noun “peregrinus”, the combination of the words “per” or through and “ager” for land. Literally speaking, a peregrinus or pilgrim is one who walks through the land. A pilgrim is a wayfarer as the Hebrews would claim that we have “no lasting city” on earth. We are merely passing through this earth on the way back home to God who is also our origin.
So, what is a pilgrim?
A pilgrim is a follower or a seeker of God. In our age when traveling is a way of life not only in one’s own country but to various parts of the world, a pilgrimage to a holy site is different from a tour primarily because of God himself.
In a pilgrimage, it is God who calls us to follow him or seek him in the Holy Land and other holy sites. It is God who gives us the strength – physically, emotionally, and spiritually – to follow or seek him in a holy site. It is God himself who plans our itinerary for any pilgrimage we undertake! Believe me, every sacred site has a calling and no matter how much you have heard about it that you want to visit but God has others plans for you, you’ll never make it.
It is not superstition. Just today we were prevented from going to Mt. Tabor which we failed to visit in 2017; first time I went there was in 2005. I just don’t know why Jesus is keeping me away from his mount of transfiguration. I just feel deep inside it is not meant for me again. In 2017 I came to visit anew the tomb of King David but it was only then I realized that above it is the Upper Room of Christ’s Last Supper.
Every pilgrimage is an invitation from God. Does he play favorite why not everyone is invited especially in this age of frequent traveling?
God is not playing favorite among us when it comes with pilgrimages. It is more about the question of who is truly serious in following or seeking him for a more intimate relationship through a Holy Land or holy site pilgrimage. And this is because a pilgrim goes through the land to meet himself first. Unless we have come to terms with our very selves, we shall never come to terms with life. Or death. And ultimately with God.
A pilgrim is a serious follower or seeker of God.
A pilgrim walks through the land in order to meet himself or herself. The time and distance or destination do not really matter that much. The goal of any pilgrim is to experience and find God by discovering himself or herself. From being a journey, life then becomes a pilgrimage because a pilgrim is someone who keeps on going through the land, going through all the pains and sufferings to find himself or herself more in order to be with God always.
Ultimately, a pilgrim is someone who willingly enters into a relationship with God to follow Him and be with Him in any direction to reach His home, our final destination which is heaven.
Listen. The Lord must be calling you too to be a pilgrim. Follow Him.
All photos by the author. From the top: Mt. Nebo monastery where God gave Moses the chance to see the Promised Land; statue of Jesus sleeping on a bench in Capernaum; travelling through the desert highway in Jordan; and, morning boat ride at the Lake of Galilee.
The Lord Is My Chef Easter Sunday Recipe, 21 April 2019
Photo from Google.
During our morning prayer (lauds) at the parish today, I invited my parishioners to “internalize” the meaning of Jesus being buried, being “dead” this Saturday. I love the word “internalize” that evokes the imagery of Jesus “descending into the dead” while we his disciples go inside our very selves, probing deeper our heart and soul to examine our faith in the Risen Jesus Christ.
Internalize. I think this is the keyword this Easter Sunday. To internalize means to go into the dark, to befriend darkness. Unless we have gone through the darkness of Good Friday, we shall never fully appreciate the brightness of Easter Sunday. How sad that so many of us went through all liturgical celebrations and other devotional practices of Palm Sunday into Holy Thursday and Good Friday only to be absent this Easter Sunday which is the most important celebration of our faith, the very foundation of our being Christians. All those five weeks of Lent plus the Holy Week are preparations for Easter which covers more than 50 days beginning today until Pentecost. And those 50 days are counted as one big day because Easter is the Mother of all feasts in the Church!
And if Christ has not been raised, then empty too is our preaching; empty, too, your faith.
1 Corinthians 15:14
Recent events demand that we as a Church, the Body of the Risen Lord, internalize our being Christians. You must have seen that viral photo of Antipolo pilgrims who have turned the Cathedral into a huge trash bin during Holy Thursday’s visita iglesia. It was the same sight in many churches and pilgrimage sites last week that make us wonder if Jesus is really alive in us? Or, Jesus has risen but we have remained dead in our sins and indifference, in our own “do-it-yourself” kind of religion or cafeteria Catholicism when we choose to believe only in certain teachings and beliefs that suit our tastes and well-being.
Photo by Kae Rivera via GMA News.
Problem is not only with the faithful but also with us priests when we have forgotten or even disregarded Jesus our Lord and Master, giving more emphasis on our own beliefs and concepts of what is true, good and beautiful that our celebrations and practices have become more of a show than expressions of faith. See how repositories on Holy Thursday have become more like a stage for “Asia’s Got Talent” or any variety show that have robbed Christ of the dignity and honor because people have become more focused with the glitz and glamour of the stage design and production. Sorry to say, it has become more of a show than a devotion as people leave talking about the spectacle than Jesus being present. And the sad part is how we priests have misled the people away from Christ but consciously or unconsciously, closer to us.
Now see my dear readers how in our gospel accounts this Easter Sunday that the prevailing mood and scenery are of darkness.
At daybreak on the first day of the week… On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark… That very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus…As they approached the village to which they were going, they urged Jesus, “Stay with, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.”
Luke 24:1… John 20:1…Luke 24:13, 28-29
From Google.
Jesus rose in the dead of the night to bring light and life. Recall how the evangelists unanimously tell us that when Jesus died, there was widespread darkness to remind us that our darkest moments in life are our finest ones when we are with him. His first appearances were all in the darkness of dawn, dusk, and evening. There is something in darkness that Jesus invites us to come to him and meet him. It is only in the dark when we truly enter into a new and deeper level of friendship and relationship, of intimacy with him or with anyone else like married couples because it is in darkness when we truly trust and believe the other person. In the darkness of the night we muster all our faith and trust, strength and courage to await the breaking of a new day filled with hope and joy.
In this age of social media when everybody has the whole world as a stage, we always live in the brightness of so many artificial lights, stage lights for performances or palabas as we call them. We no longer have what Paul Simon sings “Hello darkness my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again…” Jesus conquered darkness so we can befriend it to find our selves and others better. Darkness is the light that leads us to Easter! Life need not be always bright because the sun does not shine on all days.
The tragedy of forgetting darkness, of always living in artificial lights is that the more we fail to see ourselves, others, God, and the world around us. The more we fail, the more we are sad, the more we are unfulfilled. Worst, the more we do not see despite all the lights! Don’t you find that ironic, even absurd? And that explains why we have so many undeserving elected leaders today. This Easter, let the darkness of the dawn, of the empty tomb be our light in following Jesus. Be not afraid to walk in the dark like the two disciples going to Emmaus because Jesus always walks with us, listens to us, shares with us in the darkness of our lives. Jesus is alive and he loves you very much! Amen.
40 Shades of Lent, Thursday, Week-V, 11 April 2019
Genesis 17:3-9///John 8:51-59
From Google.
Almost forty days ago since we started this journey on Ash Wednesday, we have reflected that “life is Lent”. Today, O Lord, as we nearly conclude this Season of Lent on Saturday morning, we come full circle to that reality.
Life is Lent because it is about being with you, our God, our Father following your direction in Christ Jesus.
With you, God, we find life.
Without you, God, we lose life.
Help us to remain in you, dear God. To always stay with you as you have told Abraham from the very beginning.
God also said to Abraham: “On your part, you and your descendants after you must keep my covenant throughout the ages.”
Genesis 17:9
Help us to remember and keep this always as you remind us too, that Jesus Christ your Son is our Savior primarily because everything he said and done were said and done in obedience to you his Father.
Jesus is the obedient one just like Abraham who first showed us how life is a daily Lent, of being centered on you, always listening to you, always doing your will.
In a few days we shall enter the Holy Week. May we always bring with us the lessons of this Season of Lent, that life will always be Lent, of being with you, staying with you, our God and Master. Amen.
lordmychef.com 